BUCHAREST, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The fishing boat intercepted in the Romanian territorial waters of the Black Sea turned out to have 70 Syrian and Iraqi immigrants aboard, much more than the initial estimate, according to the latest information provided by the Coast Guard on Monday.
As many as 70 people were identified aboard the ship: 23 children, 12 women and 35 men, according to preliminary information obtained in the investigation soon after the boat was escorted to shore, in Mangalia Port.
Two patrol boats of the Coast Guard were mobilized to stop the fishing boat suspected of carrying some 50 illegal immigrants on Sunday night through Monday, about 23 miles offshore of the Romanian coast, said earlier Alexandru Ion, spokesman for the coast guard.
The people safely landed in Mangalia Port and one of the women, pregnant, was transported to Mangalia Municipal Hospital for medical care.
According to the coast guard, the boat sailed under Romania's flag, but without any name being engraved on it.
This is the second capture of the coast guard this month in the Black Sea. On Aug. 13, a motor-yacht was intercepted with 69 Iraqi immigrants on board.
Romania has become one of the transit countries for immigrants from Syria and Iraq to Western Europe.
Official data of the Romanian Border Police showed that in the first half of this year, about 2,500 foreigners tried to cross the Romanian border illegally, a five-fold increase compared with the same period of 2016.
Some 1,437 of these migrants were caught at entry and 1,037 while trying to leave the country for western European countries, mainly via Hungary.
